This is the Week of Leaks: first and foremost Wikileaks, and now the iPhone Leak. No, I’m not talking about the disappearing signal (aren’t we bored of the iPhone antenna stories yet?), this is leaking white light as reported by TheStreet.com:

Apparently, the back light from the iPhone display screen is leaking out around the edges of the glass and seeping through the back of the white phone, according to a person familiar with the manufacturing process.

So it appears Apple can’t make a white iPhone – for now. I actually think the black one is more elegant, but of course it’s a matter of choice. HTC can claim to be first, since their white EVO is now available – but is it really white?

Not really…this is a black phone with a white back – a rather tasteless combination, if you ask me. If you want white, go for the true white, which is what the iPhone design is – if they can ever manufacture it.

All this white-mania makes my head spin, to the point I can’t pick to most fitting tune. Is it:

The HTC EVO is the hottest Android phone for now, but it is plagued by the much debated battery issue. Clearly, it’s a monster of a workhorse, and battery life will depend on one’s usage patterns: you can’t expect a whole lot if you get background updates from social networks every 5 minutes and watch HD video for hours.

I shared some of my recent Android experience here, with the two leading phones, Verizon’s HTC Incredible and Sprint’s EVO now it’s time to share a trick (actually two) that makes or breaks your experience with these two mobile powerhouses. Matt Burns @ MobileCrunch loves the EVO but considers the battery a deal-breaker:

Simply put, the battery sucks. It’s a deal breaker. I’m really sorry to say that, too. In fact it hurts me because I wanted this phone so bad, but the battery life is horrible. The phone will lose a third of its battery sitting overnight with the GPS, WiFi, and 4G turned off. Even with Advanced Task Killer set to aggressive and auto killing apps every hour, the most I can get out of the phone is about ten hours.

I know – been there, done that and could not believe how bad it was. In fact with everything (Wifi, GPS, Mobile Data) off and without activity, in Sleep mode the battery died in 6 hours. So why have a Smartphone if I have to turn everything off to be able to make a few calls? I refused to accept it, searched, searched, experimented, and found the two tricks that can dramatically improve battery life. They are actually simple: start with more, and don’t lose it 🙂

Start with more juice

No, I don’t mean buying a bigger battery pack. Get more out of what you already have. Charge with Power OFF. Seriously. If you charge your phone turned on, it will reach full charge status very fast. The problem is, it’s not really full, only Android thinks so. Turn it off, and recharging will last hours longer, but it will truly be full. Since it appears to be a software glitch, we can hope an OTA update will fix it … one day.

Don’t lose your juice

Keep your Apps under control. No, Task Killer and similar tools won’t help, some programs do get restarted no matter what you do. Here’s what you need to check: After power on, keep the phone in Sleep mode for a few hours. If Uptime and Awake time are close to each other, or even 2:1 3:1 ratio, you have a problem. An application does not allow your phone to go to sleep. Keep on trimming your App list (and I don’t just mean shut down, but full uninstall) until you’ll see awake time less than 10% of uptime.

With those two tricks, your phone should last 2+ days in Sleep mode, and otherwise it will obviously depend on your actual usage.

(See update @ the bottom)
Well, this did not take long. I’ve just speculated that Google & Sprint wanted testers before the commercial rollout of the Android-driven HTC EVO on June 4th – a few hours later I see that theory proven. I ran into trouble setting up Google Voice, and called the special number given to Google I/O attendees. Apparently it’s a “discovery period” customer support group, and the rep I talked to was very (unusually!) courteous and helpful – at least she tried to, within the limits of information available to her. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. Here’s the skinny:

I’m in the somewhat rare situation of being able to compare the HTC Incredible on Verizon and the EVO on Sprint, released a month apart, with essentially the same setup, same software releases. Here’s part of the Google Voice configuration screen on both:

And yes, the shocking discovery: it appears that Sprint limits using Google Voice to international calls only. Let me rephrase that: other parts (e.g. voicemail, transcription..etc) of the Google Voice service will still work, but if you can’t initiate calls using your GV number, than guess what, the other party will see your Sprint mobile number, that’s where they will call you back…etc – in other words the key concept of “One number to show”, which is what Google Voice integration is all about, is dead.

The Sprint rep told me she hoped it was a software glitch that would soon be updated, but frankly, the different wording suggests otherwise. I’m afraid it’s a business decision by Sprint, and one that should be made very, very public. Full Google Voice integration happens to be a key decision-making factor when switching to Android, for yours truly, forTechCrunch’s Mike Arringtonand likely many others. Not having it could prove to be a show stopper.

Update: The short answer, and it’s a good one, it’s not Sprint policy, just an installation glitch. Details:

All of a sudden I remembered that a few weeks ago when I set up Google Voice on the HTC Incredible with Verizon, it refused the accept my existing Google Voice number, so I tricked it: went ahead with the route of setting up a new number, but input y existing Google Voice number, then it worked.

I suppose something got fixed since then, as the Sprint EVO allowed me to link up with the existing GV account, albeit with the limitation shown above… so I started to wonder if I should try the same trick here. I deleted the Sprint cell number from Google Voice, signed out on the EVO and even deleted the entire Google Voice app (probably an unnecessarily step, but who knows…). Then I proceeded with the “new number” setup, but of course using the existing account information. Got into a couple of loops with error messages, nevertheless following all prompts both on the mobile and the GV web side finally resulted in the perfect Google Voice installation, with identical results to the Incredible version (the phone shown on the left). I’m a happy Google Voice user again.